Alfred K Munnings

[CaroleW]

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/info-pilot-alfred-k-munningss-time-in-france.75942/

I think the opinions expressed on that site are the same as my own but put more forcefully. 

I don't think Mr Munnings ever existed or,  like many "authors" - he is using a pseudonym.

But why use a pseudonym if you are writing about your own experiences and they are truthful??

If Alfred K Munnings was alive in 1995 - why is there no death for him after that date?

Up to 1937 Wareham was the Reg District for Tyneham and the only Alfred K birth there was surname Smith in 1915

[smudgepants]

I find the issue of the name very odd. I did think of the possibility that the person, if there really was a person who called himself Mr Munnings when his name wasn't Munnings, then why did he do it? Was this name false for a reason, did this person work for inteligence, who knows. Probably not, I just find it all very strange.       

[CaroleW]

did this person work for inteligence

I very much doubt it!! 

[smudgepants]

I doubt it to, but why else would they do such a thing unless he didn't want to identified after the war and considered as a coward.

[CaroleW]

My reply was in answer to the suggestion he may have been in Intelligence. 

I think you need to take on board the comments/suggestions made both here and on the other site.

Go back to your friend and show him the comments etc and in particular - get details of when and where he met up with Julian or Gerald and the name and location of the pub who knew both Alfred & Julian.  Then take up Liz's suggestion of writing to the pub.

Being a sceptic - like the absence of the newspaper article - I suspect you will also draw a blank at the pub. 

[smudgepants]

Carole, all and Liz's suggestions have been taken on board, I will be doing as suggested i.e finding out the name of the pub and writing to them. There are other avenues that I will be going down as well such as contacting the local mairies in the areas he mentions outside of Lyons La Forêt to see what they can dig up.

My friend is fully aware of all the comments on both sites as I am in regular contact wth him and has seen everything. He to is very frustrated and is doing all possible to help.

I pray that this is not a 'fake' story, if it is then I feel that I have not only wasted everyone's time on both sites but that I have wasted my own time. I just understand the problem with the name, if this is not his real name then why use a pseudonym. Is Munnings the figure of someone's imagination, if so, why?     

[lizdb]

My friend is fully aware of all the comments on both sites as I am in regular contact wth him 

And yet we are still short of facts -
When and where was the pub visit
How did anyone know that the Gerald and Julian were linked to this Alfred? Why cant they be contacted again to find out more? (Their own birth years and places, and surnames for example!)
If the friend visited Julian (as in reply#11) he must have had some sort of contact, and knowledge about him.

[venelow]

Exactly the questions I was thinking of also lizdb. 

For me the wolf attack bit in the account the OP posted on the WW2 site is a big red flag.  Smudge says that he visited the area and spoke to someone who confirmed the wolf attack story.

Was this person a witness to Munnings attempts to save the girl? Or did he just confirm that there was some old story that a girl was attacked by a wolf in a part of France where, by 1940, they were very rare having mostly been exterminated by farmers in the 1930s. A story that could have been repeated in many anecdotes, newspaper stories or histories anytime between 1941 and 1995.

And France was not closed to the outside world between 1945 and 1995. All the details, maps, places etc could have been researched since the war.

Maybe A.K.Munnings was hoping to sell the film rights to his story.

Venelow

[JenB]

There is now a new reply (# 40) on the WW2 Talk thread referred to earlier, stating that 56 squadron have confirmed no record of this man serving with them.